Maschine, Sp 404sx, or mpc 500?

I've saved up enough money of $550 and I don't know which one to get. Maschine, Sp 404sx, or the mpc 500? My friend's selling his sp 404sx for $350and my local shop's selling the mpc 500 for $250 and the Maschine mikro is $399. If yall could help me decipher the pros and cons of them so I could decide would be dope. I do boom bap and lofi hip hop by the way.

what are you already using?

the maschine is software with a usb controller... it requires a computer.

the 500 is a small standalone music making machine... well it let's you record or load samples and create patterns with those samples. you can also sequence other gear with midi on the 500.

the 404 is a cool machine. it is a sampler that can record extremely long samples... but editing them is not very easy on the 404 when you compare it to how it's done on the maschine or the mpc. However it has a lot of fx and other things to make up for it. I think the 404 and the 500 would be great to use together.

the maschine is potentially the most powerful with the most features... it is the newest. the 404 and 500 are stand alone units not requiring a computer.

For that money I'd personally buy a mpc1000 and get the free JJ Os. It has more outputs, bigger screen (and waveform editing) and you can build in a harddrive. Check for the pads tho, or get the padfix from mpcstuff. I use the same machine for boombap (with some other stuff, but I could also easily pull it of with just my mpc1000) and I love it.

mr_debauch wrote:what are you already using?

the maschine is software with a usb controller... it requires a computer.

the 500 is a small standalone music making machine... well it let's you record or load samples and create patterns with those samples. you can also sequence other gear with midi on the 500.

the 404 is a cool machine. it is a sampler that can record extremely long samples... but editing them is not very easy on the 404 when you compare it to how it's done on the maschine or the mpc. However it has a lot of fx and other things to make up for it. I think the 404 and the 500 would be great to use together.

the maschine is potentially the most powerful with the most features... it is the newest. the 404 and 500 are stand alone units not requiring a computer.

I'm using the mpk mini mk2 and it's just not cutting it. Out of all those, I'd think the sp 404sx would be the best choice out of them. The Maschine sounds good, is it worth being tied down to the laptop?

Christov wrote:For that money I'd personally buy a mpc1000 and get the free JJ Os. It has more outputs, bigger screen (and waveform editing) and you can build in a harddrive. Check for the pads tho, or get the padfix from mpcstuff. I use the same machine for boombap (with some other stuff, but I could also easily pull it of with just my mpc1000) and I love it.

The 1000 sounds like a good choice. Vs the Sp 404, which one has more things to do, like effects?

The 1000 and 404SX both have their pros and cons. One can do what the other don't and one doesn't what the other does.

The effects on the 1000 are shot to shit but the 404SX got great effects and many too. Chopping is great on the 1000 but chopping on the 404SX is a little tedious because it does not chop but there are ways to do it. The 1000 has a screen, in which the 404SX doesn't. 404SX shows the BPM of samples, the 1000 says you figure it out. 1000 is 32 polyphony, while the 404SX is only 12 polyphony.

So many things, thats why its gonna take a lot of research to know what you looking for. Just don't shit the bed.

Yeah basicly what Ill-Green said. I personally never used the effects on the mpc1000, I add effects in my DAW, but that's a personal workflow thing I guess. Personally I wouldn't choose effects or bpm-determination over the benefits of the mpc1000 as summed up above. The reason for that is basicly:
1. I've owned a ASR10 in the past which did not have waveform editting. I mean it's doable, but I prefer seeing a wave to help me chopping samples. Sometimes it just helps.
2. The grid editting of the MPC1000 reminds me of those oldskool tracker programs. I started to make beats on those. Simply edit out a note or move it around a bit is fairly easy.
3. Plus the way you make a beat on the MPC just makes sense to me. Also a personal thing I guess.
4. You can always add effects later.
5. Being able to track out individual tracks simultanously saves alot of time and makes your mixing alot more flexible.
.... plus some more.

I guess if I was you I'd look at some Youtubevideo's and see if you can try out either a mpc, a sp404sx and maschine in real life. A friend of me got a MPC1000 some years ago and after playing with it for some hours I found out it worked for me workflowwise, but then again, if he'd had a SP404sx who knows.

But just specwise, I'd go for the MPC1000.